Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano argued Thursday that Roger Stone should get a new trial after unearthed tweets appear to show an “inherent bias” from a juror who voted to convict the longtime friend of President Trump.
“[Stone is] absolutely entitled to a new trial with a member of a jury making these types of revelations about the politics involved in the decisions to prosecute him,” Napolitano said on “Fox & Friends.”
“It is the duty of the judge to ensure that both the government and defendant get a fair trial, and if the judge discovers afterward that there was a built-in inherent bias on the part of a member of a jury against the defendant, that is an automatic trigger for a new trial,” he later explained. “[U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson is] going to have to call those jurors back in and interrogate them or make a decision on the spot.”
The perspective comes after Tomeka Hart, a former Democratic congressional candidate, revealed Wednesday she served as foreperson on the jury that convicted Stone on obstruction charges in November.
Several of Hart’s anti-Trump tweets were then uncovered, including a March post about the Mueller investigation, which led to the charges against Stone.
In January 2019, Hart also sent a since-deleted tweet of Stone’s arrest in a pre-dawn raid in Florida while sharing an article outlining his indictment. “Brought to you by the lock her up peanut gallery,” Hart wrote.
Four Department of Justice prosecutors resigned from the Stone case on Tuesday after Attorney General William Barr stepping in to recommend a lower sentence than they recommended for lying to Congress and witness tampering.
Hart shared a Facebook post with CNN on Wednesday in support of the four prosecutors, stating she “couldn’t stay silent any longer.”
“I want to stand up for Aaron Zelinsky, Adam Jed, Michael Marando, and Jonathan Kravis — the prosecutors on the Roger Stone trial,” she wrote in the post. “It pains me to see the DOJ now interfere with the hard work of the prosecutors. They acted with the utmost intelligence, integrity, and respect for our system of justice.”
Trump has been supportive of Stone while publicly slamming the judge in the case.
“Is this the Judge that put Paul Manafort in SOLITARY CONFINEMENT, something that not even mobster Al Capone had to endure? How did she treat Crooked Hillary Clinton? Just asking!” Trump tweeted to his more than 72 million followers on Tuesday.